Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said today he won’t seek a third term in 2010, but the man widely regarded as a 2012 GOP presidential contender declined to talk about his political future.

Pawlenty, who rarely misses a chance to crack a joke, opened his Capitol news conference by announcing he was signing an executive order requiring Twins star Joe Mauer to also quarterback the Vikings.

Then he turned serious: “I still have a lot of ideas and energies left, but being governor should not be a permanent position for anyone,” Pawlenty said, flanked by his wife and two daughters.

He brushed aside questions about life beyond the governor’s mansion, saying his focus was on “finishing this term out strong.” Beyond that, he said, he had no plans.

Pawlenty hinted, though, that he’ll remain in politics.

“My party needs new ideas, new policies, and I think I can contribute to that,” said Pawlenty, who has talked in the past of the GOP’s need to remake itself to attract “Sam’s Club Republicans.”

A conservative with blue-collar roots, Pawlenty, 48, has been considered a likely White House candidate for months and people close to him say they expect him to seek the Republican presidential nomination. Pawlenty has left open the possibility of a White House bid; people close to him say he had been trying to decide between running for a third term or seeking the presidency.

His announcement comes as he’s in the middle of a prolonged dispute over one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats months after the race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. The governor hasn’t issued an election certificate because Coleman, whose term expired in January, is still contesting the results that tipped the race to Franken by a few hundred votes.

Pawlenty’s success as a right-leaning Republican elected twice in left-leaning Minnesota marked him in national GOP circles as a young politician to watch. He gave his political profile a boost in 2008 when he endorsed John McCain early on, then campaigned for the nominee around the country and in many national media interviews.

That work earned him a spot last summer among the top prospects to be McCain’s running mate. Pawlenty was seen as one of two or three finalists right until the moment McCain upended the campaign by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

If he seeks the presidency, Pawlenty could face a GOP field crowded with former and current governors. Among the potential candidates are Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

If running for president is his goal, there are numerous advantages to vacating the governor’s mansion.

By not being tethered to St. Paul, Pawlenty will be free to travel to political events and, more important, to key nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

The decision will also spare him a costly and potentially difficult reelection bid in 2010, where a loss could derail his ambitions before the nomination process even heated up.

“The Republicans are looking for leaders and his experience as governor gives him an entree,” said Merle Black, a professor of politics at Emory University in Atlanta. “One of the things that he would be trying to do is increase his name recogition and visibility throughout the country because outside of Minnesota he isn’t known at all.”

Black compared Pawlenty to another governor who sought the presidency — former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. When Carter left the statehouse in 1974 he was unheralded but spent the ensuing two years building a political network — including long months campaigning in Iowa.

Pawlenty began calling political allies early Tuesday to disclose his plans. One person who talked to the governor said he cited personal and political considerations, including his battles with a Democratic-controlled legislature. Pawlenty also has two daughters ages 16 and 12, and declining to run for another term would free him to seek more lucrative work than the $120,000-a-year governor’s salary.

Pawlenty has taken a conservative’s stance on taxes, most recently holding firm against attempts by legislative Democrats to increase some taxes to fill in a massive state budget deficit. Failing to reach a compromise with Democrats, Pawlenty instead invoked executive powers that allow him to trim state spending without legislative consent.

State Representative Jeann Poppe (DFL District 27B – Austin) said she wasn’t surprised by the announcement and added that she felt the state was in need of a change.

“I think we need to come up with some new strategies; he was of one certain mindset,” she said. “I’m not sure that just cutting government services and eliminating services and programs for the people of Minnesota is the best answer.”

Pawlenty strayed from his tax orthodoxy just once, when in 2005 he proposed and helped pass a 75-cent-a-pack “health impact fee” on cigarettes that critics said was just a creatively named tax.

The governor has followed traditionally conservative stances on most social issues, favoring freer access to guns and opposing abortion and legal partnership rights for gay couples. But he’s broken from party orthodoxy on a few issues, speaking out in favor of importing prescription drugs from Canada and promoting pro-environmental business initiatives.

The lawyer and native of South St. Paul started in politics on the local level, serving on the Eagan City Council before his election to the state House where he went on to serve as majority leader. Pawlenty was little-known statewide when he first ran for governor in 2002, but managed to win against a veteran Democratic legislator and a prominent former congressman running for a third party.

He was re-elected in 2006 in another three-way race; despite his two victories, Pawlenty has never exceeded 46 percent of the vote.

Pawlenty claimed a long list of accomplishments at his news conference, saying he “kept Minnesota competitive” by putting a lid on taxes and spending.

But Minnesota Democrats called his decision “an opportunity to move Minnesota forward.”

“Governor Pawlenty’s ‘no new taxes’ ideology plays well to Republican special interests and the dinner circuits from Iowa to New Hampshire, but it has hurt Minnesota and Minnesotans,” Chairman Brian Melendez said in a statement. “The divisive politics of ideology and calculation have done enough damage.”